Quick-Hit Budget Update.

HARRISBURG _ The state House has begun debate on a Republican-authored, skeleton budget
plan that will jump-start paychecks for state employees and vendors.

The start of debate comes just a day after budget talks
between legislative leaders and the Democratic Rendell administration slowed to
a crawl, leaving both sides pointing the finger of blame.

Gov. Ed Rendell has said has said he plans to run his veto
pen across broad swaths of the GOP-backed spending plan, resulting in the
''bridge'' budget that would do little more than pay employees and vendors and
keep government operating until a permanent accord is reached.

Democrats and Rendell hope that the elimination of funding for, among other
things, hospitals, schools and the arts will put pressure on Republicans to
negotiate.

Today’s debate started with the apparent de-fanging of the House’s
“Blue Dog” caucus, a band of fiscally conservative Democrats who largely hail
from western Pennsylvania and have staked their reputation as opponents of tax
increases..

On Sunday, House GOP leaders said they’d teamed with the
Blue Dogs to craft a $27.5 billion budget plan that offered modest increases
for public education and social welfare programs and would offer it as an
amendment today.

But in the face of an outright veto threat from today, the Blue
Dogs backed off their plan. The move prompted House Republicans to resurrect a
budget plan that the majority Democrat chamber shot down last month.

Pennsylvania has been without a budget since July 1, making it a member of an exclusive club
of states that do not have approved spending plans on the books. The failure to
reach an accord has prompted statewide demonstrations by disgruntled state
workers who have been working on partial or no pay for weeks.

“What we are doing here has put Pennsylvania back by another month,” said Rep. Mario Civera of Delaware County,
the ranking Republican on the House Appropriations Committee. “For some reason
it has to always be the other side of the aisle’s way.”

Both sides, Republican and Democrat are using the people they work for to push their own political agenda. Look at the first day of the budget battle this past week, before it went private. It was nothing more than a p'sing match regarding when and where to meet the next day. Rep are trying to gain their foothold back after the big Dem national victory and they blame Dem for "taxes that will hurt the middle class American" Dems are being arrogant. It is as if they are playing football rather than taking on the responsibility that the state budget entails and thinking about all the lives they affect. I am serious here, anyone responsible for this mess should be voted out. No more government as usual and we need to demand common sense government. There is a middle ground and it is time that both sides actually understand what they are voting on, what these budgets means to Vets (for instance) Every budget proposal so far has meant less and less money for Veterans. We started out as that meaning a loss of 300 beds, now it is 500 through the Commonwealth. In MAY the DMVA's own Maj Gen Jessica Wright put out a statement of concern regarding this. How is it in 850 every perk that a legislator gets is in detail but yet the DMVA is an amount, no details? Perhaps it is written somewhere else BUT it certainly looks like the legislators concerns are with themselves, not with the people they serve.
Anyone who denies knowledge of what 850 and successive budget proposals means to Veterans is negligent at best and a liar at worst.
I am so tired of people saying that losing Veterans beds is a political ploy. The numbers don't lie and Maj Gen. Jessica Wright doesn't lie. I happen to have great respect for her. Not only is she my top boss, but I was at a funeral of a soldier who my son served with and Maj Gen. Jessica Wright was there. She is an awesome woman who manages to carry her large responsibility on her shoulders and yet was a caring woman who understood the pain and pride involved with the family of the soldier who was killed and she gave that family great comfort.
If it means a tax to keep our Vets and everyone else taken care of so be it, but first I think every place we give money as taxpayers needs evaluated and not by people whose concern is to make sure their own buddies have high paying jobs or have a vested interest in any way. We need to evaluate what it is we need and what we can do without and really we need workers and equipment, not multiple supervisors and secretaries for secretaries. We don't need ward secretaries taking care of money and maintenance and ordering supplies when they don't even know what they are ordering and who they need to order from.
Some people are overstressed and overused and it seems to me others simply don't have enough to do.
We need eval'ed by someone with real and current knowledge of what is being evaluated.
I should not have to call someone who calls someone who emails someone when one phone call by me would be all that is needed to get something done. We need efficiency. Then if we need to increase taxes so be it. I know where I work agency workers are being paid and right now we are OVER staffed to make sure we are following the no overtime law. We have workers making premium overtime. We have no real continuity of care. We have higher paid workers such as RN's and LPN's working as nurses aides. We are bodies. We might be on several units working in the same day because there is no knowledge of where staffing is needed. We call that being the ping pong ball. That is just plain scary and bad things could happen. We don't have a minimum number of nurses aides, RN's and LPNs that are needed on a unit, we just have "numbers" We might end up with four Registered and Licensed nurses and two nurses aides providing care on a unit. The opposite also can happen, not enough RN's and LPN's to get the required and mandatory work done that only licensed nurses can do and too many nurses aides.
I have to call multiple departments to get the proper equipment because there is no effective communication between departments and no accountability between departments and shifts. There is not even a standard of how things should be done or where things are from unit to unit. People are involved with supplies that don't even know what the supplies are. I need 4x4's not 150 batteries. I have recently spent 4 hours attempting to get tube feeding supplies because no-one knew who gets them or from where because someone retired who took care of that.
Equipment should not cost more for the state than what a common person can pay.
I fight for proper equipment. I should not have to crawl on the floor to turn on and off the power supply to make the printer or computer work. I know that falls under "other related duties" but I do believe nursing should come first. Why is it we clean dishes at every meal instead of having a dietary worker do that at lesser wages? This takes up at least an hour during daylight shift. I have worked overtime and gotten time and a half to essentially just pass meds and do dishes.
I am a nurse, every day I chart on multiple forms the same info. This is nursing 101 that duplicate charting creates liability by increasing the rate of potential error. I am sure I am giving someone a job, but are those jobs needed, the ones who in the end push the paper I have to fill out?
I now am required to know more about financial info than any nurse should have to. Rosif forms, 1010m's. I code for insurance. I am not a coder. I have to know who is medicare and who is not or else someone could end up with a bill collector hounding them or their family.
Again nursing 101, nurses should not be involved with financial info because theoretically people with money or insurance could end up getting better care.
Care is suffering because nurses time is caught up with paperwork. Why do I have RN's on the floor that are not my supervisor and have no real authority and supervisors that are calling overtime and putting my time in the computer and not very involved with what is going on on the floor because they do not have the time and do not do patient care? Any other nursing home utilizes CNA's for care, uses LPN's as team leaders who do the majority of medical and treatment nursing care and paperwork, and has RN's as supervisors who are called when as assessment needs done as well as a ADON and a DON. We are top heavy.
WHY do we have multiple meetings with people that take us away from the floor for hours and those meetings have people that are not directly involved with patient care setting rules for care that most of the time have no basis in reality because they do not know the resident? Are those people really needed?
Why do our care plan coordinators most of the time have to ask us about the resident they are putting information on the MDS about, and that is what gets us money at least in part. Should they not be on the floor as well?
Should not our paperwork flow with the MDS and should not every worker understand that flow? WHY are we charting on paper and in the computer when one database would make it easier for the DOH or anyone else to find info.
The phone rings continually from other departments because they need information and do not have access because everything is not on the computer.
You try multitasking that, phone calls, care, paperwork and Dr's orders and taking the orders off and making sure they are followed through in a timely manner. A person should be concentrating on that one thing they are doing or errors can happen. It is unsafe.
If you WANT to save money ask a Commonwealth worker.
If you want to have a p'sing match and continue to waste money go on as you are.
It's time to stop the rhetoric and deal with reality.
I want to make sure my Veterans and the Guards are being taken care of. I have a vested interest in both. My son fought in Iraq and I care for my Veterans.
I also need my job and quite frankly I am good at it BECAUSE I care. I have nothing to lose here. By speaking out, at least I am trying to affect a change.

Posted By: Susan Powers | Aug 4, 2009 12:39:20 AM

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